Natural cheese is produced by adding a lactobacillus to milk to cause lactic fermentation and adding an enzyme rennet as a coagulant to produce a solid or curd, from which excessive water and whey are, then, removed to give a fresh product, called cheese. Alternatively, the fresh product is ripened which is also called cheese. Process cheese is produced by heat melting and mixing one or more types of cheese, followed by solidification, where the heating and melting stop the fermentation to make the product suitable for long-term storage. Process cheese contains components which are formed during the fermentation and ripening steps, for instance, aromas and deliciousness components, which give tastiness unique to cheese.
Cottage cheese is known as a kind of natural cheese. Cottage cheese is produced by adding vinegar or lemon to milk to curdle it and is called non-ripened cheese because it never receive fermentation and ripening steps. Cottage cheese has a plain taste and a little sour taste and fresh flavor because it never receive fermentation and ripening steps.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2009-261385 discloses a cheese flavor and/or milk taste-enhancing agent which comprises a powder seasoning having a meet-like flavor, which is produced by heating a mixture of edible plant fat and oil, and yeast extract powder, and yeast extract (claim 1). The powder seasoning having a meet-like flavor is produced by heating a powdery mixture of edible plant fat and oil and a powdery yeast extract at a temperature of 70 to 180 degrees C. for 10 to 180 minutes (claim 5). The cheese flavor and/or milk taste-enhancing agent is added in the production of cheese (claim 6).